Well, as I have feared, the Russians are starting to whine and threaten about the gap between the end of the US Space Shuttle Program and the new Orion spacecraft to service the International Space Station.
The Space Race was a major battlefield for the hearts and minds of the world during the Cold War. A battle the Russians LOST. Now, any time the Russians can hold the US space program hostage, it does...
Russia says U.S. shuttle delays create a burden
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE56S4WV20090729
Wed Jul 29, 2009 12:55pm EDT
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A senior Russian space official said delays in U.S. shuttle launches to the International Space Station (ISS) meant extra work for Russian rocket crews without any financial compensation, RIA news agency reported.
Russia and the United States are the main contributors to the 16-nation $100 billion ISS project, but Russia has borne the brunt of sending crews and cargo there since the U.S. Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated in 2003, killing seven astronauts.
"We are most concerned by the unpredictability of shuttle launches," RIA quoted Russian mission control flight coordinator Valdimir Solovyov as saying....
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Cold War - Old School Style
Well, this looks a little alarming:
http://www.reuters.com/article/joeBiden/idUSLN49107
Russia vows to stop Georgia re-arming
MOSCOW, July 23 (Reuters) - Russia will take "concrete measures" to prevent Georgia from re-arming after its war with Moscow last year, ITAR-TASS news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin as saying on Thursday."We will continue to prevent the re-arming of (President Mikheil) Saakashvili's regime and will take concrete measures against this," the agency quoted Karasin as saying in an interview.
Given this article from the BBC, it seems we're going a little old school:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8165617.stm
US backs Georgia's Nato ambitions
The US "fully" backs Georgia's hopes of joining Nato, US Vice-President Joe Biden has told the country's parliament on a visit to the capital, Tbilisi.
Mr Biden is addressing fears in Georgia that the US might sideline its ally in favour of improved ties with Russia.
In a speech to Georgian MPs, he insisted that was not the case and declared: "We will stand with you."
However, Mr Biden also said that the former Soviet republic had to do "much more" to deepen its democracy...
http://www.reuters.com/article/joeBiden/idUSLN49107
Russia vows to stop Georgia re-arming
MOSCOW, July 23 (Reuters) - Russia will take "concrete measures" to prevent Georgia from re-arming after its war with Moscow last year, ITAR-TASS news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin as saying on Thursday."We will continue to prevent the re-arming of (President Mikheil) Saakashvili's regime and will take concrete measures against this," the agency quoted Karasin as saying in an interview.
Given this article from the BBC, it seems we're going a little old school:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8165617.stm
US backs Georgia's Nato ambitions
The US "fully" backs Georgia's hopes of joining Nato, US Vice-President Joe Biden has told the country's parliament on a visit to the capital, Tbilisi.
Mr Biden is addressing fears in Georgia that the US might sideline its ally in favour of improved ties with Russia.
In a speech to Georgian MPs, he insisted that was not the case and declared: "We will stand with you."
However, Mr Biden also said that the former Soviet republic had to do "much more" to deepen its democracy...
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
A Tentacle of the New Soviet Breaches the Surface
Well, well, well. The following story is reminiscent of Soviet-style indiginous surveillance, and should bug anybody who has a memory of the Cold War, and likely disturb anyone who may ask if it could be perpetrated on them.
Bit by bit, festered member by festered member, the beast is being reborn:
Russian Intelligence Granted New Powers over Citizens
http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=35289&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=7&cHash=682b346e25
Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 6 Issue: 139
July 21, 2009 12:53 PM Age: 24 hrs
Category: Eurasia Daily Monitor, Home Page, Domestic/Social, Military/Security, Russia, Featured
By: Yuri Zarakhovich
On July 6, the Russian ministry of communications posted its Order 65, on its official website (www.minkomsvjaz.ru). Effective as of July 21, the order decrees that Russian postal services must make available for inspection on demand to the Federal Security Service (the FSB, the main successor to the Soviet KGB) and seven other Russian security service agencies any private mail or shipments, as well as its exhaustive data on senders and addressees. Special rooms where security officers will be able to open and inspect private mail were decreed to be established at post offices. Order 65 also cancels the privacy of electronic correspondence. Operators will now formally grant the security services access to their electronic databases...
Bit by bit, festered member by festered member, the beast is being reborn:
Russian Intelligence Granted New Powers over Citizens
http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=35289&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=7&cHash=682b346e25
Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 6 Issue: 139
July 21, 2009 12:53 PM Age: 24 hrs
Category: Eurasia Daily Monitor, Home Page, Domestic/Social, Military/Security, Russia, Featured
By: Yuri Zarakhovich
On July 6, the Russian ministry of communications posted its Order 65, on its official website (www.minkomsvjaz.ru). Effective as of July 21, the order decrees that Russian postal services must make available for inspection on demand to the Federal Security Service (the FSB, the main successor to the Soviet KGB) and seven other Russian security service agencies any private mail or shipments, as well as its exhaustive data on senders and addressees. Special rooms where security officers will be able to open and inspect private mail were decreed to be established at post offices. Order 65 also cancels the privacy of electronic correspondence. Operators will now formally grant the security services access to their electronic databases...
Monday, July 20, 2009
Interesting
It seems the Russian adventures in Georgia are pissing off the old Soviet. GOOD!
Old allies signal loyalty to Russia has limits
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsMaps/idUSTRE56J2VV20090720
By Denis Dyomkin and Oleg Shchedrov - Analysis
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin will find it hard to ignore the absence of half the leaders of the former Soviet Union from an informal summit in Moscow last weekend, at a time when Europe is developing its interests in Russia's "back yard."
This year's Presidential Cup horse race, a traditional cue for an informal gathering of the 11-member Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), drew only five top guests: the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Tajikistan.
The presidents of Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan all failed to show up, citing personal reasons. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko went instead to ride a Harley-Davidson at a local bikers' rally.
"The CIS leaders used the chance ... to show they are unhappy with the state of relations with Russia," said Alexei Mukhin, head of the Center of Political Information think tank.
Medvedev's predecessor Vladimir Putin had managed to stiffen the loyalty of the ex-Soviet states, helped by their economic dependence on Moscow and their fear of popular revolutions. But Russia's war with Georgia last year and a series of bilateral spats have strained this loyalty again.
"A race away from Russia is inevitable," analyst Leonid Radzikhovsky said on an opposition-minded web site, Yezhednyevny Zhurnal. (www.ej.ru)
NEW MOOD
Moscow's war with Georgia last year over the pro-Russian separatist region of South Ossetia marked the first time the Kremlin has deployed troops in anger outside its borders since the fall of the Soviet Union, and this alarmed its neighbors.
None have so far followed Moscow in recognizing the independence of South Ossetia and another Georgian rebel region, Abkhazia -- both of whose leaders did go to Moscow's hippodrome as Medvedev's guests. Georgia anyway quit the CIS after the war.
Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev is preparing for a presidential election on July 23, but the other absent CIS leaders all had bones to pick with Russia.
Ukraine, looking for closer integration with the West since its popular revolution in 2004, is at odds with Moscow over gas transit and the future of a Russian naval base.
Belarus, long Russia's closest ally, has clashed with Moscow over gas prices, ownership of gas networks and dairy exports.
Uzbekistan is angry about Russia's support of border hydropower projects in neighboring Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, which it sees as a threat to its national water supplies.
And Turkmenistan has stepped up efforts to diversify its gas supplies to China and Iran after an explosion in April on a pipeline linking it with Russia, its traditional partner. It has blamed the explosion on the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom...
Old allies signal loyalty to Russia has limits
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsMaps/idUSTRE56J2VV20090720
By Denis Dyomkin and Oleg Shchedrov - Analysis
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin will find it hard to ignore the absence of half the leaders of the former Soviet Union from an informal summit in Moscow last weekend, at a time when Europe is developing its interests in Russia's "back yard."
This year's Presidential Cup horse race, a traditional cue for an informal gathering of the 11-member Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), drew only five top guests: the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Tajikistan.
The presidents of Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan all failed to show up, citing personal reasons. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko went instead to ride a Harley-Davidson at a local bikers' rally.
"The CIS leaders used the chance ... to show they are unhappy with the state of relations with Russia," said Alexei Mukhin, head of the Center of Political Information think tank.
Medvedev's predecessor Vladimir Putin had managed to stiffen the loyalty of the ex-Soviet states, helped by their economic dependence on Moscow and their fear of popular revolutions. But Russia's war with Georgia last year and a series of bilateral spats have strained this loyalty again.
"A race away from Russia is inevitable," analyst Leonid Radzikhovsky said on an opposition-minded web site, Yezhednyevny Zhurnal. (www.ej.ru)
NEW MOOD
Moscow's war with Georgia last year over the pro-Russian separatist region of South Ossetia marked the first time the Kremlin has deployed troops in anger outside its borders since the fall of the Soviet Union, and this alarmed its neighbors.
None have so far followed Moscow in recognizing the independence of South Ossetia and another Georgian rebel region, Abkhazia -- both of whose leaders did go to Moscow's hippodrome as Medvedev's guests. Georgia anyway quit the CIS after the war.
Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev is preparing for a presidential election on July 23, but the other absent CIS leaders all had bones to pick with Russia.
Ukraine, looking for closer integration with the West since its popular revolution in 2004, is at odds with Moscow over gas transit and the future of a Russian naval base.
Belarus, long Russia's closest ally, has clashed with Moscow over gas prices, ownership of gas networks and dairy exports.
Uzbekistan is angry about Russia's support of border hydropower projects in neighboring Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, which it sees as a threat to its national water supplies.
And Turkmenistan has stepped up efforts to diversify its gas supplies to China and Iran after an explosion in April on a pipeline linking it with Russia, its traditional partner. It has blamed the explosion on the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom...
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
The New Soviet is Hungry
Georgia continues to be the apple of Russia's eye, and they want to take another bite...
Russia warns Georgia over any move on Ossetia
Tue Jul 14, 2009 2:43pm EDT
* Russia says hopes Georgia learned "lesson"
* Medvedev stresses importance of military exercises
By Denis Dyomkin
NOVOROSSIISK, Russia, July 14 (Reuters) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday he hoped Georgia had learned its lesson and would not make any more attempts to retake its rebel provinces South Ossetia and Abkhazia...
Russia warns Georgia over any move on Ossetia
Tue Jul 14, 2009 2:43pm EDT
* Russia says hopes Georgia learned "lesson"
* Medvedev stresses importance of military exercises
By Denis Dyomkin
NOVOROSSIISK, Russia, July 14 (Reuters) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday he hoped Georgia had learned its lesson and would not make any more attempts to retake its rebel provinces South Ossetia and Abkhazia...
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Revising Cold War History - Volume 1
As I've said, this blog is not a 'let's-all-hate-Obama' party, but when the President of the USA goes to Russia and COMPLETELY misrepresents the nature of Cold War and enforces an equivilence that doesn't exist, I have to point it out.
The article below is excellent at doing just that:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124744075427029805.html
Obama Rewrites the Cold War
The President has a duty to stand up to the lies of our enemies.
By LIZ CHENEY
JULY 14, 2009
There are two different versions of the story of the end of the Cold War: the Russian version, and the truth. President Barack Obama endorsed the Russian version in Moscow last week...
Here is one quote from the article that I thought was rather outstanding, and shows how far we have fallen from the tree of common sense:
"No people in history have preserved their freedom who thought that by not being strong enough to protect themselves they might prove inoffensive to their enemies." - President Harry S. Truman
The article below is excellent at doing just that:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124744075427029805.html
Obama Rewrites the Cold War
The President has a duty to stand up to the lies of our enemies.
By LIZ CHENEY
JULY 14, 2009
There are two different versions of the story of the end of the Cold War: the Russian version, and the truth. President Barack Obama endorsed the Russian version in Moscow last week...
Here is one quote from the article that I thought was rather outstanding, and shows how far we have fallen from the tree of common sense:
"No people in history have preserved their freedom who thought that by not being strong enough to protect themselves they might prove inoffensive to their enemies." - President Harry S. Truman
Monday, July 13, 2009
Throwing Molotovs (not the cocktail)
1945.2 The New Divide Begins
APRIL 23 - US President Harry S. Truman tells Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov that he is determined to take a "tougher" stance with the Soviets than his predecessor had. Truman never had the trust fot the Soviets that his predecessor entertained, and spared no time letting Molotov know that the expansionist moves of the USSR were not welcome or helpful.
It is pretty easy to see that as WWII began to wind down, the ideological fissures between the West and East were growing, and accelerating.
(Yes, the cocktail was named after him...)
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